Gloaming
by LothCat
Summary: Ezra is the only one to grab the activated holocron at the Sith Temple before it can do something terrible, and the choices he makes could change the fate of the galaxy, for better or worse.
1. Chapter 1

Energy cracked and sparked violently, between the Sith Holocron and the obelisk and around the structure itself. It seemed to nearly echo the storm of emotion inside Ezra as he struggled closer to the artifact. Maul had betrayed them, they never should have come here, it was all a trap. He had to get the holocron, he had no idea how long Ahsoka would be able to keep Vader at bay. He'd seen her easily overpower the inquisitors, but Vader was something else entirely.

His hand still throbbed painfully from the energy surge where Vader had broken his saber. Ezra didn't know how badly it was burned, he didn't have time to peel back his glove and check. Not when they could die at any moment. He tried to tune out the sound of plasma blade impacting plasma blade and pushed closer.

" _So persistent,_ " The voice spoke to him again. It sounded ordinary enough to his ears, for all that the vaguely feminine voice managed to somehow fill each word with a mix of amusement and disdain and condescension all at once, but it seemed to echo inside his skull and urge him to flinch away. If the voice was food he would have spat it out as tainted no matter how desperately hungry he might be.

"Yeah, well, I'm not going to let this be used to kill anyone." Ezra gritted his teeth, pushing just a little closer. The voice laughed and Ezra shuddered, swallowing back the urge to gag.

"I _could kill him for you, the one you fear. Wouldn't that make things easier? Well, I likely will anyway you know. This much power, either it finds a target or…._ " The voice of the holocron trailed off and Ezra could suddenly see it, the power building up until it overloaded and everything around the Sith Temple evaporating. Him, Ahsoka, Kanan, even Chopper wouldn't be safe from the blast. " _Tell me what you want._ "

"I…" Ezra hesitated.

"Ezra!" Kanan's voice cut through the crackle and whine of the energy around him.

Even before Ezra turned he somehow knew it was going to be bad. Some echo through their tentative training bond, some vibration of the Force. Kanan's face was covered with some sort of white mask and he clung to Chopper in a way that made Ezra's heart plummet to somewhere below his stomach. Kanan had to be hurt badly, he needed him. If Vader saw him, vulnerable, if Maul reappeared…

"I need to help them!" Ezra forced out, turning away and finding the strength to shove close enough for his fingers to brush the holocron and then grip around the hard edges. It burned with cold, a sick sort of pain when skin goes from cold to numb and then beyond. He would have thought it would have been enough to distract him from the pain in his burned hand, but it only seemed to magnify the sensations.

" _You want to help your friends? Are you sure? You think you can make a difference?_ " The voice mocked him.

"I'm sure! Give me the holocron so I can go back and help my friends! I need to go back and help them." Ezra wasn't sure if he was screaming or barely forcing the words out. He thought he heard Kanan yelling something from behind him, but it was drowned out by the terrible voice.

" _Then go_." Ezra felt the holocron suddenly come unstuck from the energy field, the sudden silence roaring in his ears as he fell backwards, the world around him going black.

.

.

And then there was nothing.


	2. Chapter 2

Ezra stared at the sky, squinting at the light and trying to gather his thoughts. His first thought was that everything hurt and he thought he was going to be sick. The next was confusion, where was he? It didn't look like any part of Malachor he'd been before. He struggled to sit up, everything spinning. He was still holding the holocron hard enough that the sharp edges had dug into his hand and it was effort to loosen his fingers to clumsily tuck it away inside a pocket. Then there was a loud sound, like something exploding, and panic shot through him and he was scrambling up onto his feet, swaying with the effort.

Where was Kanan? Where was Ahsoka? He was alone, but he could hear what sounded like fighting. He struggled to stay upright, moving towards the sounds. He braced against an outcropping of rock with his good hand, trying to focus. Stormtroopers and… some kind of droid? Nothing he recognized. Then there was a brilliant flash of blue and he was moving forward without even thinking about it. That was Kanan's lightsaber, and he had to get to him. He was surrounded, he had been hurt? It didn't matter that Ezra could barely stand and his lightsaber was in broken pieces, he needed to get to Kanan.

Ezra made it fairly close, trying for something resembling stealth, crouching down behind another outcropping near the fighting, and then losing his balance and kneeling hard. He panted harshly, vision graying out as he fought to stay conscious. He was distracted enough he didn't even hear someone else approach until a white and black armored gauntlet was grabbing his shoulder.

"Hey you. What are you doing here?" The voice came, mechanically flattened by the helmet.

Ezra looked up into the blurred face of the helmet and reacted automatically, pushing the stormtrooper away with his mind and forcing him to stumble back. That was the final straw though, his tentative grasp on consciousness slipping away entirely and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed onto the dusty ground.

* * *

"Let me get this straight. We're here in the middle of nowhere, taking out a Sep outpost, and some kid stumbles right into the middle of battle? How badly is he hurt again?" Anakin gave Kix a doubtful look.

"Fairly bad, but it doesn't seem like he was hurt during the fighting. He's got a few minor bruises, some superficial burns on one hand, but he's in shock and I don't know the cause. I've got him stabilized, but he's still pretty out of it." Kix paused like he was trying to figure out how to phrase the next part. "Sir, the trooper that found him reports that he shoved him away using the Force. And he keeps asking for Ahsoka."

Anakin's eyes narrowed as he glanced back through the viewing window at the figure under guard in the secure room. "Obviously I don't know every Jedi and padawan, but I don't know why the Temple would send someone and not tell me. And I don't think he meets the description of anyone missing."

"You think it's some kind of trap, sir?" Kix asked.

"Maybe. Whatever it is, we'll figure it out. Did he have anything on him?" Anakin glanced away from the window, the newcomer had been slipping in and out of consciousness from Kix's report. Not entirely lucid yet, but too stubborn to stay out.

"He did, there were a few things of interest." Kix grabbed a tray, passing it over. A few objects had been laid out across it, Anakin picked up the first, holding it up in an easy grip.

"I haven't seen a saber design like this since ancient history classes at the Temple. Some of the earlier designs had issues with being vulnerable to overloading, so the cross vents prevented that possibility. Once technology improved there was no need for the vents anymore." Anakin tried turning it on out of curiosity, but nothing happened. Either the power cell was empty, or something else had broken inside it. He set it back down on the tray, picking up a strange pyramid-shaped object, turning it over. It looked almost like a holorcron, except for the shape. He probed it with his mind, but when it didn't respond he set it back down. The last thing was in two pieces and he turned it over, curious, carefully fitting it back together. He might have thought it was a blaster, but that didn't seem quite right. He was curious to take it apart, but that could wait. It looked like it had been cut apart, possibly by a saber strike.

The other things were less interesting, a com unit that was working but didn't seem to be picking up anything on any of the channels it was tuned for, and various bits and pieces.

"How soon do you think he'll be up for talking?" Anakin asked.

"You could try now," Kix looked back through the viewing window, Anakin followed his gaze and it looked like the newcomer was awake again, struggling to sit up and not managing it.

Decision made, Anakin went to interview their unusual guest.

* * *

"… don't even know why you bucketheads are going for the retro look but it's insulting is what it is. When I find out what you've done with Kanan and Ahsoka..." The kid was certainly talking big, even if he looked half dead, and he had Rex and the two guards fixed with an impressive glare.

"You'll what?" Anakin interrupted, stepping into the room. The kid lolled his head over, trying to focus on him, and then a look of confusion crossed his face.

"You look familiar..." The kid slurred, frowning.

"Probably," Anakin wasn't surprised at that, a lot of people knew what he looked like. "You want to tell me why you were trying to run right into a battle?"

"I saw Kanan," There was that name again, and Anakin had never heard it before.

"Who's Kanan?" Anakin pressed, even if the kid was defensive, he was hoping to get a straight answer.

"Why should I tell you?" The kid started and then stopped, staring at the doorway.

"What's going on?" Ahsoka let herself into the room without bothering to ask for permission, and Anakin wished he was surprised. She'd been scouting out the unfinished base with a small force while he dealt with the cleanup.

"He seems to think we've done something with you and someone named Kanan, Snips. Any ideas?" Anakin asked, keeping his tone light.

"You're not… I mean you look like… you, ah, you don't happen to have an older sister or something? Because you're not Ahsoka, but you look like her, just..." The kid was staring at Ahsoka with confused horror.

"Excuse me?" Ahsoka sounded indignant. "I'm Ahsoka Tano, who are you?"

"You can't be, I just saw her, she's… tall. And she knows who I am," The last bit came out almost plaintively.

"Why don't you tell us who you are?" Anakin tried to get him back to the topic at hand.

"I'm, wait, I know you, you were in the holocron, as an instructor," The kid focused on him now, looking like things were starting to click into place. "But if you're really Anakin Skywalker, and she's really Ahsoka, and that guy didn't just paint his helmet to look like Rex's..."

Anakin glanced at Rex, who shook his head slightly. No one would have mentioned any names in front of the kid. But if he was pretending to know them, why wouldn't he recognize them? It was very odd.

"What holocron?" Anakin asked, but the kid looked even more freaked out, skin alarmingly gray even as tan as he was.

"This can't be real, it has to be a vision or something. But I've never had one last so long. I don't… not that holocron, the other. I don't..." He slurred, and then his eyes were rolling back. Anakin stepped forward, but he was already passed out again.

* * *

"What do you think is wrong with him?" Ahsoka asked. A few hours had passed and they were due to be on their way or explain the delay, but Anakin didn't want to leave until they had some tentative plan for what to do with the unexpected guest in the medbay.

"Physically or mentally?" Anakin said, only half joking. Kix had suggested, and he'd agreed, to sedate the guy for a while to hopefully give him more of a chance to recover, but the whole situation was weird. His first guess was that with the stranger's medical state he was most likely tortured. That would fit with the little external damage and his disoriented hostility, but why? And why would he appear like he did in the middle of no where? Unless he had been held at the Separatist outpost and escaped or been set free. There wasn't any sign that a prisoner had been kept there, but it was possible. There wasn't any sign of a craft he could have used to come from off-planet. His behavior though was very strange.

"He talked about having visions. Do you think that has anything to do with, well, anything?" Ahsoka pressed.

"Maybe. It does seem like he's force sensitive at least. It would be a lot easier if he was conscious and willing to talk with us." Anakin shook his head slightly. "Right now my best theory is that he was a prisoner at that outpost."

"I heard that he force-pushed Echo, but he didn't seem violent in there, just defensive. It almost sounded like he thought Rex and the others were impostors." Ahsoka said thoughtfully.

"I guess the big question is now, do I take him back to the Temple and let the council try and figure it out?" Anakin asked, thinking out loud.

"Why wouldn't we take him back? Unless he didn't want to go." Ahsoka frowned.

"He might not be as helpless as he looks. One of the Sith could have taken him on as an apprentice, hurt him just enough to look sympathetic, and set this up as an elaborate trap," Anakin pointed out.

"Wouldn't he be happier to see us if that were the case? And he doesn't look like much of a threat, though I guess that would be the point," Ahsoka glanced back in the direction of the medbay, even if there weren't any windows there to see anything. There was, however, Kix making an appearance again.

"Sorry for the interruption, the sedative is wearing off, but he seems more coherent now if you'd like to try questioning him again," Kix said.

"Lets pay him another visit then." Anakin stood up, starting down the hallway. More coherent might mean he was better able to play whatever role he had planned, but it also might mean he could be more helpful.

The kid looked less agitated at least, sitting propped up on the bed without struggling. He looked tired, which could be partially the sedatives, but he still started speaking almost before Anakin was fully in the room.

"Ok, so, I know this is going to be kind of a weird question, but what year is it?" The kid asked.

"Nine hundred seventy nine," Ahsoka offered, before Anakin could think on if they should be answering questions like that or not.

"I thought you'd say something like that," He looked worried, and resigned."That's… 3255 LY? '56? Something like that? As far as I last knew, it was 3274 LY."

"Going by the outer rim calendar… What do you mean '74?" Anakin only took a moment to convert the dates.

"I'm not sure exactly how long I was out, but something like a day ago it was sixteen years after the rise of the Galactic Empire, if you're not lying then I've been sent back before the Empire ever formed, back during the Clone Wars. I know that sounds crazy..." The kid spoke hesitantly.

Anakin could feel his eyebrows raising even as he tried to look at least a little composed. Of all the stories he was expecting, that wasn't even anywhere close.

"You mean to tell us you just were walking along and ended up time traveling?' Ahsoka sounded skeptical.

"No, uh, I kind of activated an ancient Sith temple, by accident! And I was trying to stop it before something awful happened and then I blacked out and woke up here. Not here, here, but back on the battlefield. I should… probably explain more than that, huh?" The kid said.

"That's… alright, keep explaining." Anakin wasn't sure what to think, but this conversation was being recorded and he didn't know what might be useful even if none of it was true.

"Just one thing first, I know it sounds weird, but, I mean, the only other thing I can think of is someone trying to mess with me and get information out of me, so do something to prove you're Jedi? I could see the Empire finding someone who looks a lot like Anakin and like Ahsoka when she was younger, but..." He gave a half-shrug.

"Why should we…?" Ahsoka started, and then Anakin interrupted.

"That's easy enough." He reached out, concentrating, and lifted the kid up off the bed by an inch or so before letting him resettle. Maybe something else could be faked, but it would be hard to argue with that.

"That's… yeah." He let out a shaky almost-laugh. "My name's Ezra Bridger, my master is the Jedi Kanan Jarrus. Sixteen years ago the Republic dissolved and became the Galactic Empire. The Jedi were said to have turned traitor and most of them were executed. My master survived, and Master Yoda, and Ahsoka. I don't really know if anyone else did. We're part of a group fighting against the Empire, and their Inquisitors, darkside users who hunt down Jedi. We were able to contact Master Yoda using a Jedi temple in the outer rim and he told me if I wanted knowledge to defeat the Sith I should go to Malachor. We went there, Kanan and Ahsoka and me, and I thought the temple would have answers, but it didn't. We were attacked by the Inquisitors there, and I was trying to get the Sith holocron out of the temple. I don't know where it is now, I had it." Ezra frowned at that.

"A pyramid about fist sized? We have it, along with everything else you were carrying." Anakin wasn't sure what else to say, but at this point Ezra had officially moved into weird enough to take back to the Temple and let the council figure things out.

"My lightsaber? It broke, but, I thought maybe..." Ezra said, hopefully.

"You're not getting anything back unless the council agrees to it," Anakin said firmly.

"I kind of figured. And... when I first came back, I know I saw Kanan. He must have been brought back with me. He was right in the middle of everything, of the fighting, he'll back me up on this. Where is he? If you found me..." Ezra glanced around, even if he was alone in the medbay.

"We didn't find anyone else. And no one saw anyone else, especially not in the middle of the battle. Where exactly did you think you saw him?" Anakin asked.

"I… It was hard to see exactly, but in the middle of the fighting, I saw his lightsaber," Ezra insisted.

Anakin started to point out that no one would have missed a second lightsaber when a sobering thought occurred to him. He reached to his belt, unclipping his own saber and igniting the bright blue blade.

Anakin still didn't know what the truth was with the whole situation, but for just a moment confusion and then very real grief slipped through the kid's shields before they slammed closed again. He turned it off, clipping it back to his belt. Ahsoka started to say something, and he put a hand on her shoulder, making her pause.

"We should give the order to head back to Coruscant," Anakin said firmly, getting a quick nod. She had to have felt it too. Until then they could at least give Ezra an illusion of privacy because no matter what the real story was, he doubted anyone could feign a reaction like that.

The council could figure out the rest.


	3. Chapter 3

Ezra tried to find something to stare at that wasn't the one clone Captain left in the room with him, but failed. It wasn't like there was a great deal of stuff in the room, mostly just medical equipment, and that was hardly worth staring at. As best he could tell, while he'd been downgraded from a huge potential threat he was still worth worrying about and they weren't going to just trust him to stay put and wait. He didn't really blame them, in the same situation he wouldn't have trusted him either.

"I'm, uh, sorry, about before." Ezra finally broke the silence when it got to be a little too much. "You are Rex, right? 7567? I think that was it. Your helmet design is just like his, unless that's just a common design."

There was a pause, and then the trooper took his helmet off, holding it. "That's me. Most of us have our own designs, though sometimes they can look similar."

"Whoa," Ezra stared, startled. He'd managed to wrap his head around the fact that Ahsoka was around his age now, but he'd been picturing that Rex would be in his 40s maybe, some gray in his beard, or hair if he had hair back then. He wasn't expecting him to look only a little older than himself. "You're… young. I mean I knew you'd look younger, but not this young. But if it's only been a couple decades..."

Rex gave him an odd look. "We were designed to age about twice as fast as a non-cloned human would, otherwise by the time we were fully trained and ready to fight the wars would have been long over."

"That... makes sense," Ezra said slowly, still looking him over. He wasn't what he was expecting, with close shaven blond hair and no facial hair at all, but his eyes were the same, and after a little bit more searching he was able to pick up on the familiar lines of his face that wouldn't change too much with age and time. "I'm still sorry I was yelling at you, and the others. I thought you were stormtroopers."

"I'm guessing it's the armor?" Rex asked, but he sounded amused, not angry, so Ezra took it as a good sign.

"Kind of? It's not exactly alike." Ezra looked at his hand, still bandaged up. He wasn't sure how bad the damage was, but it didn't hurt. "If I could draw like this I could sketch it out."

"You'll get a chance to later, I'm sure," Rex said easily enough.

Ezra wasn't entirly sure if Rex believed him, or if he was just humoring him. It was a nice change from being questioned like someone was trying to trip him up and being defensive and he was willing to go along with it. It wasn't like he was lying about anything.

"How did we meet, in your time?" Rex finally asked. It didn't sound skeptical, honestly curious, and Ezra took a deep breath, thinking back.

"Ahsoka needed your help, your knowledge on old abandoned bases used during the Clone Wars, so she sent us to find you and persuade you to join us," Ezra took a deep breath, tried not to think about the fact he was telling this to Rex, and started telling him the story. Ahsoka and Rex had become people he could trust with his life later, he wanted badly to be able to trust them now. For all that she didn't look as different as Rex did, Ahsoka was harder to believe. She was so open, prickly, loud and demanding, nothing like the calmly focused leader he knew. Rex though, while he'd clearly softened and relaxed some with age, still had that same sort of quiet alertness he remembered. It was easy, sometimes, if he didn't look, to listen and pretend he was talking to the Rex he knew. He couldn't keep himself from looking, though.

* * *

The trip to the Temple passed faster than Ezra expected, though part of that could have been he spent more time than he wanted to asleep. It reminded him, in a way, of the incident with the giant fyrnock. He'd been exhausted then, and Kanan had described it as shock though Ezra hadn't been entirely sure if he was talking emotionally or medically or some Jedi thing. This time though, it wasn't being shaken off by just one night's sleep. The rest of him seemed to be healing just fine though, and the clone medic, Kix, removed the bandage on his hand and declared the burn healed. Ezra was relieved, and then immediately asked for something to draw on. That was something he felt confident in, at least, even if it brought up a tangled mass of emotions he wasn't ready to face. He sketched out Rex as he remembered him, and Ahsoka, and the people he had encountered briefly but remembered well enough to sketch, like Cham Syndulla, Numa, and Gobi. He hadn't paid much attention at the time, but now he could clearly tell that Numa's armor was Clone armor, not stormtrooper armor, and he wondered if there was some sort of story there. Even, after some consideration, he sketched out Skywalker and Master Kenobi as he remembered them from the holocron. No matter how much it hurt he sketched out the rest of the Ghost Crew. By the time they actually arrived Ezra was reluctantly handing over a stack of paper to General Skywalker, not sure if he was eventually going to be quizzed on the drawings until he was sick of them, or never see them again.

* * *

Ezra paced nervously around the small set of rooms he'd been given on arriving at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. It wasn't much, just a sitting room, bedroom, and 'fresher, minimally furnished, but compared to how much space he'd had on the Ghost it was luxurious. He understood that there was a war going on, and the Jedi council was undoubtedly busy, but he halfway wished he could just meet with them and get it over with instead of waiting like this. He'd been told they'd get to him in a day or so, and he had no idea if it was quick or not, but he didn't like waiting. There were too many ways things could go wrong and it wasn't like he was going to magically remember anything new by waiting. Maybe they were hoping he'd be a little more recovered? But he'd been hurt a lot worse before, and other than tiring more rapidly than he should he'd shaken most of the effects of the time travel.

Time travel, it seemed impossible, but then a lot of things had seemed impossible before he met Kanan. It was the only explanation that made any sort of sense to him, no matter how nonsensical it might be. There just didn't seem to be any way someone could have set this up as a farce or plot. He finally settled gingerly on the couch, wondering if attempting meditation would help or if he'd be able to manage it at this point, when a sudden chime made him jump. It took Ezra a few long seconds to realize it was someone requesting entry at the door, which just confused him more. He wasn't exactly a prisoner, but he wasn't a guest either, and he was ignoring the guard posted outside his door.

"Uh, come in?" Ezra said uncertainty, but it seemed to be the right response and the door whooshed open with little fanfare.

"Ezra Bridger?" It was a woman he didn't recognize, which wasn't a surprise. There were very few people he expected to be able to recognize. She was dressed in the same Jedi robes everyone around here seemed to be wearing, and Ezra wasn't used to looking so out of place.

"Yeah?" Ezra paused, then scrambled to stand up. It seemed the polite thing to do, and the last thing he wanted to do was make enemies.

"I was wondering if after being cooped up in the medbay on ship, you wished to stretch your legs and spar?" The woman asked calmly, watching him. She had dark brown hair caught back in thick braids and deeply tan skin not that far off from Kanan's, but Ezra pushed that observation and comparison to the back of his mind. It still hurt too much to thick about.

"Spar? You mean right now?" Ezra blinked, and then turned it over in his head. "This is some sort of test, isn't it?"

Ezra couldn't be entirely sure, but he thought he saw a flicker of amusement cross her face before she resumed the calm expression. "Do you think it's a test?"

"Makes sense, right now all you really have is my word I'm who I say I am, right? I'll come spar. Just..." Ezra tried to think of a way to phrase how tired he was without sounding like he was making an excuse.

"I am well aware of your medical report and I'll be keeping it in mind," The woman said, she hadn't offered her name and Ezra wasn't quite bold enough to ask.

"Alright, lets go," Ezra said, starting to the door. It maybe wasn't the best idea, but sitting around here in the cold empty rooms seemed a lot worse.

She led him through a series of halls that seemed designed to be confusing on purpose, and Ezra kept his eyes on her back. He could feel the confused looks he got from the occasional passer-by in the halls, and he guessed there weren't a lot of ordinarily clothed people normally led through the halls of the Jedi temple late in the evening. Eventually though she opened a door, taking him into a large open room. The floor felt soft, lightly padded but with good grip to it, and he looked around, taking it all in. It was a far cry from a cargo hold.

"There are practice blades over there, go choose one." She spoke, motioning briefly at a stand. Ezra flushed, he'd wondered about that, since he hadn't even gotten to see the broken bits of his own lightsaber yet, and quickly went to the hilt stand. They all looked the same, uniform and simple metal tubes, and he wondered if this too was some sort of test before deciding that was foolish. There were probably a lot of students, and having them be as similar as possible would make it less likely for someone to decide they'd gotten a better blade than the other. He let himself just pick one at random, moving back to the center of the room where she waited.

"Do you need anything before we begin?" She took out her own hilt, holding in a salute that Ezra recognized with a pang.

"No, I'm ready." He copied the gesture, and then lit up the bright green blade with its softer hum that indicated a lower power setting. For a spar any successful strikes would leave painful welts, but no loss of life or limb. The blade color was a surprise, but he supposed it was random. Ezra took a defensive stance, and she moved in to strike with her own green colored blade. He parried, and then there wasn't anything to think about but what they were doing.

* * *

From the observation deck, Anakin side-eyed Master Mace Windu, not keeping his skepticism hidden in the slightest.

"Is this really necessary? He just made it out of the med-bay." Anakin questioned, looking back to the two in the sparring salle as the spar started.

"It is. You said he claims to have been trained by a padawan of Master Billaba somehow, and this is the fastest way to see if there's any possible truth to that," Mace spoke bluntly, not taking his eyes off the two.

"People develop their own style, you can't say Obi-Wan and I fight exactly the same, not now," Anakin mused.

"Not exactly, but you have a lot of the same quirks, and I would assume padawan Ahsoka is picking up the same. There," Mace's eyes narrowed. "He's obviously been trained in lightsaber forms, and he's anticipating her moves, he's trained in Form III and he falls back to the basics in it. When a fighter is exhausted, they tend to react instead of think."

Anakin frowned, watching more closely, they did move surprisingly well together. He knew Master Billaba was more than good enough to match an inexperienced student and keep the spar going, but it didn't look too much like that was the case. "Is that why you dragged him out now?"

Mace nodded slightly. "I don't want him alert and working to obscure his style. There's something a little odd that I'm having trouble placing,"

Anakin watched more closely, and he might have missed it if he hadn't sparred with Snips so often. "His guard, when most padawans get tired or distracted they lower it, like they're facing someone their own height instead of a taller opponent, he's drifting up."

"Like he normally trains with someone taller than even Master Billaba," Mace narrowed his eyes, then nodded again. "And there, he hesitates to close like he's used to a longer reach."

Anakin looked for it, and then winced as the kid stumbled, not catching himself fast enough to keep from going down on one knee and barely bringing up his blade in time to parry. He relaxed a little when Billaba stepped back after the strike, signaling the end of the spar.

"I hope you've seen enough?" Anakin asked.

"It will do," Mace said shortly.

* * *

Ezra tried not to pant, that wouldn't actually help him catch his breath as quickly as deep steady breathing, but it was hard. A simple spar shouldn't have exhausted him this quickly, and he would have been screwed if it had been a real fight. He wasn't as recovered as he thought. He was grateful when the Jedi turned off her blade, and he did the same. He wasn't entirely ready to try and stand back up.

"You did well," she sounded like she approved, and Ezra smiled a little.

"I'd have been dead if I was going against you for real, but I didn't trip over my own two feet you mean?" Ezra managed, trying not to sound entirely out of breath.

"That wasn't the point," she spoke, then looked across the room.

Ezra followed her gaze, a little surprised to see General Skywalker crossing the salle floor. For just a brief moment Ezra worried he was going to need to spar with him too, and then he dismissed the thought.

"Ezra, Master Billaba," Skywalker spoke and Ezra looked up at the woman in surprise.

"You're..." Ezra started.

"The one you say trained your master, or will train him," Master Depa Billaba spoke gently, offering him a hand up.

Ezra needed the hand, taking it to pull himself up and wobbling, his legs not steady under him. He might have ended up embarrassingly right back on the floor if Skywalker hadn't grabbed at him and steadied him.

"You were drawing on the Force to keep going even though you were exhausted?" Master Billaba spoke, sounding surprised.

"Uh, yeah? Just a little. I usually do, was that wrong?" Ezra hoped he hadn't screwed up, broken some rule Kanan had never bothered with since their training was so unusual.

"No, it's fine, it's just no wonder you can hardly stand," Skywalker shook his head slightly.

"It happens. Just usually it's not so far a walk. And Zeb would haul me if I fell over halfway," Ezra tried not to think about that, Zeb would still be living on Lasan with no idea what was going to happen, what might happen?

That seemed to decide Skywalker, and Ezra didn't even have time to protest before he shifted his grip and hauled him up over one shoulder.

"Then I can do the hauling this time, but don't make a habit of it," Skywalker said, starting out of the room and back into the hallway. Ezra scrunched a little, embarrassed, but he didn't fight it. He wasn't entirely sure he could have even found his way back even if he could walk it on his own.

"I seem to remember Master Kenobi carrying you after you pushed yourself more than a few times, until you became too tall for him to carry," Master Billaba spoke gently, following them.

Skywalker chuckled at that and Ezra relaxed a little. They surely wouldn't be treating it so lightly if he'd screwed up too badly.

"Maybe just a few times," Skywalker said, keeping up the light conversation until he was back at the door with the guard outside. He just let himself in then, taking Ezra to the bedroom and dropping him down gently onto the bed there.

"I trust you can take it from here?" Skywalker asked, and Ezra nodded.

"Thank you," Ezra said, relieved that at least he wasn't going to be stripped down like a kid.

"Don't worry about it, get some sleep. At least the council never meets too early unless it's an emergency, so you've got some time to rest up even if they decide they want to hear from you first thing," Skywalker said, starting to head out.

"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind," Ezra called after him, starting to slowly strip down to just his jumpsuit. He had a few things to think about, but at least he understood why Ahsoka had always sounded so happy and wistful at the same time when she talked about her former Master.


	4. Chapter 4

"How long is the Council going to argue about this?" Anakin didn't bother to keep the annoyance out of his tone, not when Obi-Wan would likely pick up on it no matter how hard he tried to sound indifferent.

"Patience, Anakin. This is a serious matter, as you well know. Rushing into things could have far reaching consequences," Obi-Wan chided him gently, sounding far too nonchalant about the whole matter for Anakin's taste.

"I know, that's why I don't understand why no one's talking to me about this. I found the kid after all," Anakin said, easily keeping pace with his former Master.

"I'm talking to you now," Obi-Wan pointed out.

"You know what I mean," Anakin sighed.

"I do indeed. And believe me, you'll get your chance. For now you should be glad, as we're mostly arguing in circles until we get some additional facts. We know the Sith holocron is real enough, did it somehow give him true visions of the future? Did it give him false visions in order to mislead us and aid the Sith's efforts in this war? Is he lying and this is some Separatist plot? Or did he actually stumble upon a way to travel through time? Right now we have no conclusive evidence as to any of those theories," Obi-Wan explained.

"I can tell you he's not lying, you weren't there. He was genuinely confused and upset by everything, and as injured and sedated as he was I don't think anyone could have kept his story consistent like that if they were lying," Anakin said with surety.

"I believe you, and for what it's worth I think most of the Council agrees. And you're sure nothing sounded like a lie, at any point?" Obi-Wan pressed.

"I think..." Anakin hesitated, he didn't want to give them reason to doubt Ezra's story, but he trusted Obi-Wan to understand. "I think he's not lying about anything, but there are places he's omitting or glossing over parts. If you've watched the recordings, he goes into detail when he's talking about things like meeting Rex on Seelos. Then you start asking him to say how he got here..."

"And he gives a bare summary. I had noticed that, now that you mention it." Obi-Wan stroked over his beard thoughtfully. "It could be that the trauma of the event makes it less clear to him."

"Or he could worry about what we're going to think. I remember when I first arrived at the Temple I spent months worrying that you were going to discover every little bad thing I'd done and kick me out," Anakin smiled a little ruefully at the memory.

"True, it is intimidating if you're not used to it. And if he's been fighting in his own war all this time..." Obi-Wan trailed off meaningfully.

"There could be a lot of bad things he's worried about us finding out about, but we still need to know." Anakin finished.

"What would you suggest, then?" Obi-Wan asked.

"If we had time I'd say give him time to come to trust somebody and open up to them. He was the most relaxed when he was talking with Rex, but I can't really spare him indefinitely to try and befriend Ezra. Not to mention the kid's smart enough he'd probably know something was up. We could try with another trooper, but… I think the most efficient way's going to be the hardest on him. Put the pressure on, ramp up the feelings of guilt, force a confession," Anakin hated suggesting it, if Ezra knew it might undermine what little trust they'd managed to form in this time, but it could be important.

"I think you're right. For the moment we can try getting him to trust someone until we can conclusively decide if the information is important to know. If they were false visions, there's no need to make him feel worse over something a Sith artifact put in his head. But if it turns out the information was important, then we'll need to move forward," Obi-Wan paused outside a set of personal suites, reaching to press the button to request entry.

"I still have no clue how we're supposed to prove anything one way or another." Anakin shook his head slightly.

"For one part half the Council has been scouring the library for every scrap of records related to the Sith, to Malachor, to the battle that took place there, and to Sith holocrons. For another part," Obi-Wan paused, smiling as the door opened up to reveal a young Miralin woman in concealing black robes, and an older woman beyond her seated on the couch. The elder of the two was somewhat the worse for wear, one arm bandaged and immobilized in a sling. "Padawan Barriss, Master Luminara, may we come in?"

* * *

"Is there a reason you've come to me? Surely tracking down two individuals, even on the Outer Rim, should be a simple enough request to make of the Senate," Luminara spoke evenly, sipping from her teacup. If having to use her non-dominant hand for the task was difficult, she gave no sign of it.

"For something like this, we would prefer to keep it quiet. We don't wish the real purpose of this to get out," Obi-Wan explained.

"But surely some of your operatives..." Luminara started, and Anakin interrupted.

"I know it probably sounds like sending two Jedi to track down civilians for a genetic test is overkill, but I've seen your medical reports. You're supposed to be entirely off duty and do nothing more strenuous than drink tea until that arm and shoulder heals. But you know as well as I do if you stick around here either you'll find something that needs doing, or there'll be an emergency and you'll feel like you've got no choice but to help out," Anakin pointed out. As soon as Obi-Wan started explaining the plan he'd approved of it. Finding Ezra's parents, or someone who knew him, would be the quickest way to find out what was going on.

"I am not quite so impulsive as that, Skywalker," Luminara sounded faintly offended.

"You were just mentioning that it had been a long time since you ran through all the saber forms with your non-dominant hand, master," Barriss spoke up, the absolute picture of respectful innocence. Anakin didn't believe it for a second.

"For when I'm recovered enough," Luminara took a careful sip of tea, and Anakin bit back a smile.

"If things go well, it shouldn't take too long. And if it does take longer than your recovery time then we'll move on to another plan, but for the moment it's our best option. This is entirely voluntary since you are, of course, not fit for an actual mission," Obi-Wan gently urged.

"Then I suppose I can take a trip to the Outer Rim while I recover," Luminara agreed.

Obi-Wan produced a data-pad, passing it over. "This has everything Ezra Bridger has told us about his parents, and I can arrange for your transport."

* * *

"That went better than I'd hoped," Obi-Wan admitted. "The Council has been somewhat reluctant to send someone who might be needed in the war effort."

"That I can agree with. Especially when we both know odds are good she's not going to find anything, but making the kid wait in limbo for a better time isn't that great an option either," Anakin pointed out.

"And here I thought you believed him," Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow.

"I know he believes it, but Obi-Wan, you know as well as I do that a war requires clear leadership and confident tactics. A kid shows up out of nowhere with a Sith artifact and says if we continue the way we're going it'll end badly? It's too convenient. What I do believe is that he's a victim in all of this and the Jedi can and should help him. He's a good kid, he deserves more than to be a pawn in some Separatist plot," Anakin explained.

"You may very well be right," Obi-Wan shook his head slightly. "I should let the others know Master Luminara agreed, and then return to searching the archives. So unless you'd like to assist me..."

Anakin quickly shook his head. "I'll pass,"

"I thought as much," Obi-Wan sounded amused, heading off.

Anakin watched him go, and then changed direction, heading towards the senate. If he hurried, he could catch Padmé before she made other plans for the evening.

* * *

"Anakin, my dear boy. I had no idea you were still here." The familiar voice made Anakin pause.

"Chancellor, it's good to see you. Some business has been taking longer than anticipated to straighten out," Anakin explained, even if he was in a hurry it wouldn't do to be rude to his friends.

"Oh? I hadn't heard anything unusual had been going on," Chancellor Palpantine prompted.

"Probably because nothing's really been decided yet, it's a strange situation that started at the end of our last mission," Anakin started, it wouldn't do to have the whole senate know about Ezra and possibly jump to conclusions, but the chancellor would understand. Anakin was sure of it.

* * *

Ezra paced the length of the room, too restless to spend any more time meditating and too frustrated to try to find a better way to pass the time. The odd trip before with Master Billaba had been a few days ago and since then he'd been left alone, aside from the tight-lipped guard in the mask Ezra tried not too look too closely at. He wasn't supposed to leave without an escort, and every time he asked about the few people he'd met he'd been told they were busy. It was probably even the truth, but it didn't make him feel any better.

He finally felt like he'd recovered physically from the odeal at the Sith temple. Nothing hurt, and although there wasn't a good way to push himself inside the small rooms it felt like his stamina was back. He was being fed plenty and the food was a lot better than he expected, it wasn't like he was being treated like a prisoner. Ezra still wished he had something to do, some sort of distraction to keep himself from thinking too much.

Sometimes it felt a little like when he'd touched the purrgil's mind. There were the surface thoughts, the here and now, and those were kind of strange but still the sort of thing he could deal with. Then under those thoughts was a deep understanding of gravity wells and energy fluctuations and solar currents that he couldn't even begin to wrap his head around and his mind had shied away from. The here and now he could deal with one bit at a time. He could handle the strange people, and the strange place, but every time he started to think about the entirety of what had happened he shied away from it. Unlike the purrgil though, he knew he'd have to deal with it eventually.

Ezra eyed the stack of paper and various drawing tools he'd been left like they were some sort of poisonous plant. He'd done as many sketches as he could think of at first, and then when people figured out he was actually fairly good at it he'd gotten more specific requests for people and things.

There were a few things he hadn't managed to draw yet, partially in hopes that if he didn't draw them out then maybe he wouldn't remember them so vividly. That didn't seem to be working, and finally Ezra sat down at the table, taking up a sheet of paper. He bit his lip, knowing Kanan would never have approved of him letting fear make his decisions for him, and steadied his hand as he started to draw everything he remembered of Malachor.


End file.
